Fraying At The Edge: The Ecological Consequence Of Waste Due To Fast Fashion

Sri Pragnya A, KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneshwar

ABSTRACT

In the era of fast fashion, the environment is bearing the brunt of the changing trends due to the fact that the fashion industry has been one of the major contributors to the pollution of the environment due to release of toxic, untreated chemicals in various water bodies, dumping substandard quality clothes in landfills which take a long time to decompose, release toxic fumes in air. These have increased since the boom of the fast fashion trend when leading brands such as Zara and H&M have rapidly increased the manufacturing of clothes, thereby reducing the quality of such garments by turning towards fabrics such as rayon, polyester and nylon which have a detrimental effect on the quality of the environment. There have been many measures taken by various countries to reduce pollution which is caused by the fashion industry and how to protect the environment for the future generations. Various legislations such as the RCRA by the United States of America, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environmental (Protection) Act 1986 in India have taken steps to regulate the toxic effluents from being discharges into various water bodies. This paper focuses on the impact of waste produced due to fast fashion harmful to the environment and particularly how does the toxic waste produced by the fast fashion impact the water and how the legislations enforced deal with this challenge.